18 Answers
18

In simple words: you can't. By design, the launcher is intended to stay there always. If you want to give it up, the only way to do so is to give up the entire unity interface by switching to some other DE or by switching to the classic GNOME session.

Moving the launcher to some other edge of the screen is also not implemented and wouldn't be, as per Mark's comment on a bug.

*Disabling "Key to show launcher" may prevent you from accessing the dash. If you omit this part of step 5, you can access the dash, but the launcher will appear non-invasively while the dash is displayed. I don't know of any way to stop this.

Update: 12.04 does things differently, thus this may not work after 11.10.

Step 4 is not available in 12.04. See the answer by WarriorIng64 for a workaround.
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RasmusApr 27 '12 at 7:25

12.04 was released one day before you posted. My answer from February applied to 11.10. ;) I'll update it nonetheless.
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weberc2May 2 '12 at 13:28

With multiple monitors, you may need to change the "Edge stop veliocity" (experimental) to 1 in order to prevent the mouse pointer from getting "stuck" moving between monitors.
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tylerlSep 26 '12 at 6:25

In 12.10 Compiz does not have "none" option for reveal mode.
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pthurmondApr 19 '13 at 15:58

@pthurmond as my answer mentions, this may not work after 11.10
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weberc2Apr 20 '13 at 18:04

+1 for effort. But it's still there until something pushes it out of the way.
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Brandon BertelsenOct 14 '11 at 8:23

I'm certain. I read those exact steps on another website. Followed them. Same deal, even though auto-hide is selected it's acting much like one would expect from dodge windows.
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Brandon BertelsenOct 14 '11 at 8:33

Actually, now that I try alternatives. No matter what I set it to, it dodges.
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Brandon BertelsenOct 14 '11 at 8:35

Perhaps that option just isn't taking. Is there a method to apply the change without ccsm?
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Brandon BertelsenOct 14 '11 at 8:36

Same for me... Autohide + none, I checked plugin is activated... But still have this stupid pannel. I am not using Unity 2D.
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Waza_BeOct 14 '11 at 8:46

in compiz i went to the unity section and then the experimental tab and set these values to simply 'fool' the bar into never appearing unless the super button is pressed. If I can get the dash to separate from the bar entirely and move it to Cairo dock i will be extremely satisfied. ...........anyway
Experimental Tab

panel opacity 0.0050

Launcher Opacity 0.0000

Reveal Edge 0.2000

Reveal Pressure 999 (this is the main one so mouse cant grab window)

Edge Overcome pressure 1

mouse pressure decay 1

edge stop 1

menu fade in and the rest are all 0

launcher captures mouse ....UNCheCkEd

this way their is no hacking just a little easy tweaking and dash is still there and bar is only visible when hitting dash ...... i guess i could go remove all the launchers from it now and then it would hardly be noticeable.....cheers

you can also go in the config editor and change these values with greater range

^Change the width to either 0 or 1, 1 will show 1 pixel, but will not produce graphic artifacts.

Is there a less hack-y way to do this?

The other file can be edited using

gksudo gedit /usr/share/unity-2d/shell/launcher/Launcher.qml

I am aware of the autohide feature in CCSM, however that is not what I am looking for. I wanted to place a separate launcher OVER unity, and the sensitivity of autohide would make it difficult to use both.

I know this is more than a year layer, but I still wanted to give my answer: Install Compiz-Config-Settings-Manager, open it up, DISABLE Unity Plugin completely, install GnoMenu or Cardapio, or any of the other search utilities available as plugins for cairo-dock, and there you go!

Also, instead of trying to fix Gnome, another alternative is KDE. Install kubuntu-desktop from the software center and you won't regret it.

Decent's answer is a kind of solution, but if you do so, you get rid not only of the launcher, but also of the search facility. You can keep only the bar on the upper part of the screen.
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user22191Jul 25 '11 at 12:38

Did you try to hide the Unity Launcher at all? Install Compiz Config Manager (ccsm), run it, and go to Unity Plugin, then open the Advanced Tab (if I remember that correctly -- the last one), and there should be an option to hide the launcher completely. I presume that the Windows-button functionality should still work with dash completely hidden. However, I cannot guarantee this completely removes the launcher, it might, probably, show up when you do something...